Financially speaking...

Today's blog topic is going to deal with the financial aspects of IVF. I've had friends ask if IVF was covered by insurance and unfortunately for us, it is not. In communicating with others via an IVF message board, I've come across many women whose insurance does cover IVF (fully, partially, or for a specific number of tries) and I must admit I'm completely jealous! But just like us, there are a large percentage of couples that have to foot the bill themselves so we're referred to as "self-pay".

Now interestingly, there are states that mandate that infertility treatment (including IVF) be covered if pregnancy costs are covered and New Jersey is one of those states. However, because our insurance policies are not written in NJ we do not fall under the state mandate. Boo hiss!! I've also found in my research that there are other low-cost options out there...if you qualify that is. For instance, there are a number of clinical studies you can sign up for, but I'm excluded from almost all I've found for various reasons - either because I'm an old fart or because I'm missing an ovary. There's also exciting advertisements out there for mini-IVF (less meds and you're put on a "schedule" so everyone does their IVFs en masse) however, when you read the specifics I'm past the age cutoff of 36. So there are other IVF options out there, but not so much for us. I guess it's just as well - we really love our RE's office and now that we know them and trust them, we're happy to proceed with them.

So what do the costs boil down to? Well, some or most of the screening tests that I described in the previous post should be covered by our insurance. We'll probably have some out-of-pocket from those so when we've completed a cycle I'll do a grand total tally of everything. But here's what we can expect to pay at our fertility center for a "fresh" cycle with the protocol I'll be on:

• IVF - $6811 - this includes all of the blood work and ultrasound monitoring (every 2-3 days), egg retrieval (ER), the fertilization process, embryo transfer (ET) and post-transfer beta to see if it worked
• Meds - approx $3000-$4000 - this can include birth-control pills (optionally used to calm everything down or for better timing purposes), injections to stimulate the ovary to produce lots of eggs (stims), injections to keep you from ovulating (antagonist), injections to tell the body to get ready to ovulate (trigger), and 3x a day post-transfer vaginal suppositories (to increase the progesterone levels) - the good news is we've already purchased $1023 worth of meds so thank goodness we're ahead of the game on this one!
• Embryo Cryopreservation - $460 plus $270 for 6 mths storage - if we have "extra" embryos that fertilized (beyond those that they transfer back into me) we can have them frozen and stored for later use. This is optional and is paid at the start of the IVF cycle. We will pay for this option because if we are lucky enough to have "extras" to freeze, a frozen cycle is a much more affordable cycle than a fresh cycle. If it turns out we don't have any to freeze or none of the "extra" embryos make it to freezing, our money for this is refunded.

Our total, if we estimate on the high end of the meds = $11541. Ho-lee shee-ott, I know!! Thank goodness we do not have to go with things like PGD (where they have to look for genetic disorders) or ICSI (Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection, where instead of placing sperm on the egg for fertilization, they inject a single sperm into the egg) or our total would be a hell of a lot higher. But even so, $11541 is a huge gamble on a process that gives us a 37% chance of pregnancy for my age group. (Then again with no fallopian tubes we currently have 0% of getting pregnant naturally so 37% is a lot better than 0%, don't ya think?)

Now, here's why we hope we can get enough to freeze - if this fresh cycle doesn't work or if it does (yay) and we want to have another go at it down the road, a frozen cycle is around $2500 or so and that includes the meds. So it's a huge difference financially and it's much less taxing on the body (don't need to go through the weeks of injections, the ER, etc) though the success rate for frozen cycles for my age group is lower than a fresh cycle (25%).

We know the money could go towards our retirement or our first home. A couple of months ago, we even started browsing houses online and did a couple of drive-bys, getting excited at the prospect of buying our first home together. But when we sat down and talked about which we wanted more - a child or a house - we both answered the same thing. So here we are, taking our chances on IVF. With lots of hope and lots of prayers, by this time next year we'll be browsing for houses with a little baby in our arms.

GREAT appointment...and pictures from surgery too!

Had a GREAT appointment with the RE today! Everything is healing nicely and we've got our plan in motion for IVF. DH & I have to go through a bunch of screening tests over the next 6-7 weeks and we should be able to start our IVF mid-October. Can anyone say EXCITED??

The screening tests will include another semen analysis for DH since his will be over a year old (sorry hun), a saline ultrasound (to make sure my uterus is polyp free & a-ok), a pelvic evaluation (to measure the uterus and do a mock trial transfer), and infectious disease blood tests for both of us. Then we also need to attend a group IVF informational session and order our boatloads of medicine. More good news was had when I found out I could use the $1000+ of meds I had already purchased for the IUI for our IVF cycle instead. There will still be a lot more meds to order, but I'm glad that grand wasn't a waste. The next month and a half should be nice & busy with all of the above appointments so there will be plenty more blog posts to come.

So now to recap what he found when he went in for my surgery. Just like in February, my ovary was at risk. The tube with the e/p had adhered to the ovary, but thank God this doctor was able to "tease" the tube off of the ovary so I didn't lose my last ovary. GIANT PHEW!! I also had a really large blood clot in there and an adhesion on my bowel so he took care of those also. The ovary now looks good and will hopefully give us lots of eggs for our IVF cycle.

He also had pictures of what they found & what they did in the surgery. He said some people don't want to see their pics, but I was like "I'd love to see them!" Call me crazy, but I find it interesting - I mean seriously, how often do you get to see the inside of your abdominal cavity?? And he had doubles of the pics, so for those that don't mind pictures of my insides, I share them with you below.

The giant blackish blob in the bottom half of this picture is a large blood clot. It was sitting right next to my uterus.



The kinda L-shaped blob of tissue in the middle is my swollen fallopian tube adhered to my little white-ish ovary right above it.



My "stump" where my left tube used to be.



This last shot has 2 pics (thanks to my weird scanner.) The pic on the left is just showing the fact that I have no right tube or ovary and the pic on the right shows my cute, healthy ovary (the smaller whitish circle at top center.)



Well, now you all know me inside and out. :-) Like I mentioned earlier, the next few months should be a busy and exciting time for us so I'm glad you'll all be along for the ride!

Wow, it's been a week already??

As the title of this blog says, WOW, I can't believe it's already been a week since my surgery! This time last week, I was sitting in the ER waiting room just waiting for them to call me back to get prepped for surgery. This last week went fast...of course the fact that I slept through a lot of it probably contributes to the fast-forward in time!

I haven't posted in a few days but no news is good news, right? In this case, YES it is! I've been spending the last few days resting, reading (devoured Dan Brown's latest in less than a day), and walking with pup to loosen up the joints after resting so much. I'm feeling quite a bit better now. My 3 puncture marks - one inside the lower portion of my belly button, one on the lower-left side of my pelvis (conveniently right where all of the bands on my underwear seem to sit, ugh), and one right above the pubic bone - are healing well and I'm able to wear my regular clothes now without wincing, YIPPEE!!

I think my brain is still trying to grasp the fact that we absolutely cannot get pregnant without IVF. It's just such a weird feeling and I think it's going to take some time to absorb. Especially after the last 2 years of tracking cycle days and "trying" all of the things I listed in a previous post - now there's no more watching for ovulation time, no more suspenseful 2WWs to see if we got a BFP (well, except when we do an IVF cycle.) It just feels weird and well, sad. I try to look at the silver lining - for instance, once we're done building our family we won't ever have to worry about birth control. Or that I'll never have to worry again about a pregnancy getting stuck in my tubes. Those are both good things, right?

Well, I'll be back on Wednesday to report on my follow-up appointment with the RE and hopefully have some information on our plans for IVF. Until then, I'm going to appreciate the fact that I'm feeling pretty damn good compared to this same time last Monday!

Feeling a little better each day

I hope everyone has been having a good week. Mine has been filled with ice packs on my bowling ball-sized belly, lots of naps, terrible constipation, and mixed emotions. I didn't post much on Tuesday due to my anesthesia and percocet induced loopiness so I'll go into Monday's events and the aftermath in more detail now.

We got to the RE’s office and started the transvaginal ultrasound. Unlike the ultrasound at the ER in February, this time we could see the screen and the RE pointed everything out to us on the screen, explaining things as he went. As much as we hoped to see the “black hole” in the uterus indicating a gestational sac, there was a whole lot of nothing in the uterus. Oh god no, where is the sac then??? After quite a bit of painful maneuvering of the ultrasound wand, we all saw it - that little black sac - the RE couldn’t tell if it was in the tube but it was definitely outside of the uterus. Damn, another ectopic. Then with a little more painful maneuvering, we could see a large area of free fluid (blood) pooling behind the uterus. At that point we all knew it was too late for the methotrexate shot and that surgery was the only option. The doctor left the room to call the on-call RE to see if he would be able to do the surgery that night. DH looked so sad and just devastated and as I looked at him I couldn’t help but cry. I cried at the fact that we lost another baby, that DH was going to have to sit in another OR waiting room worrying about me going through surgery, and that once my last tube was removed we’d never again be able to get pregnant naturally.

DH dropped me off at the hospital ER so I could get registered and prepped while he took pup to get boarded for the night, then he came back to sit with me till the OR was ready for me. We both noticed we didn’t have the same anxiety we had in February, it’s like we’d become old pros at waiting for emergency surgery which helped but is kind of sad at the same time. No one should have to go through this twice – much less twice in a 6 month, 1 day span. By 9:30pm, the OR was ready for me and I quickly fell into that lovely sleep that only anesthesia can provide – I remember 2.5 deep breaths into the oxygen mask and then nothing else until the doctor told me the surgery went fine. I was so happy when they brought DH in to see me. The recovery room isn’t the most romantic place in the world, but as we sat together sharing a late night dinner of juice and popsicles, I fell even more in love with my husband – who loves me more every day, despite the fact that I keep losing parts. At midnight we drove home and DH made sure my favorite songs kept playing on the iPod.

So how do I feel emotionally now? Well, for one, I’m incredibly sad. While I tried to maintain that cautious optimism these last 2 weeks, I was getting hopeful that all would be well. In addition, we always thought we could try IVF eventually if we needed to and if that didn’t work, we could just try naturally as long as my eggs would allow. But now we know IVF has to work for us in order to have a pregnancy. Now we know there is no more trying without our RE, an embryologist, IVF nurse coordinators, daily injections, and about $9-12k per try.

Another emotion I’m feeling is relief. That may sound crazy, but I’m relieved that no matter what we do after this, there are no more tubes for embryos to get stuck in (surprisingly, you can have ectopics with IVF too if the embryos float up into the tubes.) And I’m relieved that after 2 long weeks of worrying about all the bleeding and cramping I was having, I know that I’m ok now.

I also feel hopeful. The RE’s and staff that we have been working with at South Jersey Fertility Center have been wonderful. We’ve now met 3 of the RE’s at that practice through our original consultation, Monday’s ultrasound, and my surgery and each one of them has been wonderful. We’re very optimistic that with their help, we will be able to fulfill our dream of having a child together.

And lastly I feel thankful – thankful for my wonderful DH who stays by my side and gets me smiling again, even after I tell him in my sadness that he should dump me and go find himself a young fertile wife. I’m thankful for our friends and family who continue to send us thoughts and prayers along this journey. I’m thankful for my message board friends who have been a wealth of information and support over the last two years of trying to conceive. And I’m thankful for my gut instinct, who twice now has told me things inside just weren’t right.

So where do we go from here? Well, for one, I keep resting and healing from this ordeal. My puncture wounds from the surgery are healing nicely, the swelling is going down a little each day, and emotionally I’m doing ok. Then, I’m looking forward to Wednesday when I have my follow-up appointment with the RE that operated on me. I’m very interested to hear the details of what they found when they did the surgery (since the last time I spoke to the doctor I was in and out of anesthesia la-la land.) And we’ll talk about IVF in more detail now that we know that is the path we’ll need to take.

One thing is for certain - we’re going to keep plugging along with the optimism that has gotten us through a very tough year. To quote DH, "Everything we've been through has only made our relationship stronger." Babe, I couldn't agree more!

Goodbye pregnancy and fallopian tube

I'm still kinda groggy from last night so this will be a short post until I muster up more energy, but the ultrasound did show a pregnancy outside of the uterus and free fluid (blood) pooled behind the uterus. With a sac present and blood in the abdomen it was evident that this ectopic pregnancy was too late for the methotrexate shot, so we went straight from the RE's office to the hospital. Had surgery last night and they removed the ectopic pregnancy and the left tube so I'm left with zero tubes and one ovary. Thankfully I was able to come home last night, well just after midnight, so I could at least sleep comfortably and not in a noisy hospital surrounding like last time.

Right now I feel more shock than anything - that this would happen again and only 6 months & 1 day after the last time. Grief is going to hit me and hit me hard, I just don't know when.

Not looking so great

Well, I had my 5th blood draw this morning and the nurse just called back with the results.

Here's how the conversation went:
NURSE: Your numbers went up to 1724 so that’s good.
ME: Yeah but they didn’t double.
NURSE: Yes they did, doubling would have been 1400.
ME: Yeah, but it's been 4 days, not 3. (I had already looked up that at a minimum they'd need to be over 1800 to have doubled within 3 days.)
NURSE: Oh. [insert long pause] Well, we have your ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow so we’ll know more after that.
ME: Ok, thanks.

I hung up then immediately burst into tears. Numbers that fluctuate or don’t double within 48-72 hours are a classic sign of ectopic. I can’t go through another night of wondering and worrying that this is another ectopic. If it is ectopic and they catch it early enough, I can get the methotrexate shot to stop the pregnancy. If it gets too late and the tube has ruptured or there’s internal bleeding (last time it was my ovary that was hemorrhaging) then the shot is not an option and surgery is the only option left. Oh god, I do not want to lose my last tube and/or ovary.

So in my blubbering, crying, stuttering voice I called and left a message for the nurse asking if there is any way I can get the ultrasound done today. God bless her, she called me back within a few minutes and I've got a 3:45 appointment to meet with the doctor and have the ultrasound. Keep the prayers coming please!

A weekend of movies & anxiety

The goal this weekend was to try to occupy my mind as much as possible until Monday & Tuesday could get here. This mission of occupying the mind required a trip to the library on Friday where I stocked up on 4 movies and 2 books. So far I've made it through Julie & Julia (loved it and btw the book is even better) and Four Christmases (ok movie.) Today's cinematic selections are Death of a Salesman (after my recent research paper on this play & the concept of the american dream, I wanted to see the movie) and Slumdog Millionaire (LOVE this movie and needed a good dose of tears and cheers.)

So is my movie weekend distracting me from my worry?? Oh HELL NO! DH was busy with an Army thing this weekend so it's been pup and me snuggling on the couch with our movies while my new roommate, Anxiety, popped the popcorn. Anxiety decided to stop by after some particularly painful cramping yesterday morning. The cramping eventually let up but not before filling my waking hours with nervousness and disturbing my sleep all night. Overall it made Saturday a pretty shitty day.

I just don't know what this next week will bring, but for now I'm going to try to keep Anxiety locked out today. I'm going to watch Willy Loman's meltdown, then cheer on Jamal Malik, and get some Nintendo DS play time in there too. I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend and I'll be back tomorrow with my bloodwork results. Fingers, toes, aw hell everything is crossed.

T minus 1 day till bloodwork and 2 days till ultrasound...

The waiting is the hardest part

The nurse called a little while ago and once again the number more than doubled. It came in at 714!! So my numbers have been 10, 37, 198, 714 - other than being low overall, they're doubling quite nicely so there is still hope. So now what do we do????

We wait and wait and wait. Monday at 8am I go back for one more blood draw, get those results Monday afternoon, then go back in Tuesday at 9:45am for an ultrasound to see if we can see the pregnancy in the uterus. Last time I had a pregnancy ultrasound it was in the hospital in February when they saw the mass in my tube and blood in my abdomen. Needless to say I'll be walking into Tuesday's appointment with equal shares of excitement and fear. In the words of Tom Petty, "the waiting is the hardest part" and boy, do I concur!

Is it Thursday yet???

Hello, friends and family! Not a hell of a lot to report today...just waiting, waiting, waiting for Thursday to get here for the next blood draw. The bleeding is still here and still bright red, but I have noticed the flow to be a bit lighter the last two evenings so maybe that's a good thing?? Cramps are unfortunately still present too. Let me tell you, I am so thankful I work from home. I make it till about mid-morning, then I have to move my laptop to the coffee table and my body to the couch. Once I'm horizontal, I slap the heating pad on and can continue to work the rest of the day with "less" pain.

I could try to distract myself a million different ways, but I'm telling you it is impossible not to think of what's going on. First I have the reminders that I am pregnant - my giant boobs, getting up to pee at least 3 times a night, and inserting my progesterone supplements twice a day. Then I have the reminders that something may not be right - "seeing red" everytime I visit the ladies room, having to use the heating pad to help with the cramps, remembering my numbers are still lower than average.

My message board girlfriends and I are really at a loss at trying to "figure out" (with our best guesses) what the hell is going on. We've thrown out some theories. Hey, it helps pass the time and I like to use the positive ones to keep my spirits up. Here's what we've got so far:

• It could be an ectopic pregnancy. If the numbers Thursday do not double or they eventually do not see any sac in the uterus, the evidence would point to this. Until we know one way or the other, I'll be on high-alert for any horrific pain, pain on one side, or pain in the shoulder blades (sign of internal bleeding.) If it's this, I'll expect to have the methotrexate shot if we can catch it in time. And if it is too late for the shot it'll mean surgery again to remove the ectopic and most likely my remaining fallopian tube. This is the option I fear the most, especially after February's nightmare!
• The tissue I've already passed is an incomplete miscarriage and there is still tissue growing in there, generating the hCG in my system. If it's this, I can expect a D&C if it can't resolve itself. I am not a fan of this option either.
• The bleeding is from a subchorionic hematoma - basically a blood clot between the membranes of the placenta and the uterus. This is quite common and can resolve itself on its own without affecting the pregnancy or can cause problems depending on the size and location of the clot. If it's this, I'm hoping it's one that the body reabsorbs just fine.
• The tissue I passed was a "vanishing twin" and now the remaining one is baking away in there, happy as a clam. I would gladly entertain this theory.
• My numbers were low because I just had a slow starter and now it's going to catch up. I would gladly entertain this theory too.
• I am just one of those weird ones who bleeds profusely (from where no one can explain) but the pregnancy is actually fine. Yep, while surely frustrating I could definitely deal with this theory if it means the pregnancy is fine.
• The pregnancy is fine but I have some kind of infection that's causing the bleeding. I have no idea what kind of infection would cause the symptoms I'm having LOL but one of my girlfriends threw that out there as another straw to grasp.
• Thursday my numbers will have dropped and we won't have to worry about any of the above theories because we'll know the pregnancy wasn't viable. Please no.

Well my friends, thanks as always for listening to my ramblings. If you have any other theories for me, by all means I'm open to as many straws as I can grasp. And as soon as I hear from the nurse on Thursday - good or bad - I'll be sure to post. Until then I'm going to continue to think positive!

Can anyone say "cautiously optimistic"?

Today's level is 198!! Talk about crazy! I have been bleeding like a stuck pig since Thursday. I have had to lay down every afternoon with a heating pad on my abdomen to help with the horrible cramps. And yet my hCG didn't just double, it "skyrocketed" (as the nurse put it) from 37 to 198! Wow!

This doesn't necessarily mean that it's a viable pregnancy, especially with the bleeding and cramping I am having. It could still be an ectopic pregnancy, particularly with the low starting numbers. There's also a chance that it's an incomplete miscarriage - where the miscarriage has started but there is still some pregnancy tissue in the uterus generating the hCG hormone.

Right now though, the numbers are more than doubling so there is hope. "Hope" - a wonderful thing and my middle name (thanks Mom & Dad for giving me an awesome middle name like that.) I'll have another blood draw on Thursday and once my levels reach 1500 or so, we can do an ultrasound to see if they can see a sac in the uterus or god forbid, see something ominous somewhere else - like a tube, ovary, etc. So we continue to hurry up and wait. Please wait along with us and join us in being cautiously optimistic!

Today's twist

Well, Aunt Flo made a triumphant entrance yesterday and was so heavy and painful today that I had no doubt my numbers had made it down to 0 from Tuesday's draw of 10. I was wrong. Today's bloodwork showed it rose to 37. Hmmm, normally this type of doubling is just what we want to see for a successful pregnancy. But with the low numbers I have, the heavy bleeding, and the cramping, this rise may not be a good thing at all. Numbers going up and down can indicate ectopic. Of course we don't know what my numbers were before the first draw of 10 so at this point we just have to wait, call them if I have any severe pain, and go back Monday for another draw. The rollercoaster ride on this cycle is not over yet I guess...

There's no way to sugar coat it...this just plain sucks!

Well, the bloodwork shows I am pregnant. And it shows it's probably another chemical pregnancy. Three pregnancies in the past year and now three losses. Fan-fucking-tastic!

The spotting and cramping are worse today so I wasn't feeling optimistic to begin with but then the RE's office called back to say the hCG level was only 10 and the progesterone 5.5. In other words, these levels are pretty consistent with it not being a viable pregnancy (chances are the hCG level was previously higher in order to register a positive on an HPT and are now dropping) and I should expect my full visit from Aunt Flo at any time now.

So now I go back for another blood draw Friday to make sure the hCG levels make it back down to zero. (Up and down numbers can be evidence of ectopic or an unresolved miscarriage so they have to do this monitoring.) Then as the icing on this piece of shit cake I've been served, since we have to monitor the levels, we have to wait until my next cycle to try the IUI so we won't be looking at starting that till September now. When you've tried for 20+ cycles already, what's waiting another one right? Yeah, tell that to my almost 38 year old ovary and my broken heart. As the title of this post says, this just plain sucks!

I love rollercoasters...but not this one

So for the third day in a row, the IC and FRER showed faint 2nd lines. Ok, what the hell is going on? The lines aren’t getting darker but they’re still showing up. So I bring out the big-big gun – the Clearblue Easy Digital. I figure if this displays “Not Pregnant”, Aunt Flo should be here at any time. Instead, the digi shows “Pregnant”!!! WOW!!

So I went to my doctor to get my first hCG level (beta) and progesterone level drawn. The first beta level confirms pregnancy (or confirms that you’re not pregnant) but doesn’t really tell you if the pregnancy is a viable one. The subsequent draws every 2-3 days need to show doubling to indicate a viable pregnancy, followed by an early ultrasound to ensure the sac is in the uterus and not in a tube or on an ovary, etc. Following this early monitoring is critical after having tubal reversal surgery and especially after having already had an ectoptic pregnancy. So I left the blood draw knowing they’ll call me with the results tomorrow. Woo-hoo, I’m excited!

Well, I was excited – but no more than an hour after getting home from the blood draw I started spotting. Now, I know some women spot throughout their entire pregnancy and have healthy pregnancies, but when I’ve started spotting with the last two pregnancies it was the beginning of the end. So now the celebratory mood I had earlier has changed to one of uncertainty and hope and dread all wrapped into one. I’m trying to stay optimistic but it’s like reading a book knowing exactly how the story will end. Please God, if you're listening, I’ve had enough unhappy endings. Please let this story have a happy one.

Still inconclusive...

Well, yesterday afternoon the big gun (FRER) showed a BFP as well. It was faint, but definitely there - even DH could spot it immediately. WOW!!! This morning I POAS as soon as I woke up and the lines on my IC and FRER are even fainter than yesterday's! I didn't think it would even be possible to be fainter than yesterday! CRAP!!!

I haven't completely given up hope for this cycle, but I'm thinking I may be catching a chemical pregnancy and it's starting to fizzle out. So now we wait for tomorrow morning and test again if AF still hasn't arrived. More to come tomorrow then...

Hello, I am a POAS addict

Towards the end of the 2WW (2 week wait) I become a POAS (pee on a stick) addict. Will I get that long awaited BFP this month? Will the pregnancy test I hold in my hand display that glorious 2nd line? Once I get to about 9 or 10 DPO (days past ovulation) I start to POAS every other day until the day AF shows up. Crazy right? I know, but I'm not alone. Believe it or not, there are LOTS of us POAS addicts out there.

We addicts have stockpiles of inexpensive home pregnancy tests in our bathroom closets. We love HPTs purchased at Dollar Tree stores because they really are just a $1 each, they’re quite sensitive and detect pregnancies early on, and most women find them to be quite accurate. There’s also ICs (internet cheapies) which are my personal favorite. I buy mine through eBay and when I buy 50 at a time, I end up paying 22-cents a test! Compare that with the $15+ per 2-pack at the drugstore and you can see how we can afford to stockpile the cheapies and use them as often as we like....which is often!

Now, once we get a BFP on our cheapies, then we'll make the trip out to the drugstore to buy the big guns - usually First Response Early Response (FRER) or something similar - to confirm that our cheap tests weren’t defective or gave us incorrect results. For example:

• If the 2nd line is gray instead of pink, it’s called an “evap line” which indicates a defective test and does not equal a positive. Tricks a lot of poeple, I tell you!
• A “digi” (a digital pregnancy test that displays “Pregnant” or “Not Pregnant”) can give you a false negative if you test before your level of hCG hormone detected reaches 50 or so. In comparison, FRER or Dollar Tree tests can detect hCG levels of 25 so it could take a couple extra days to see "Pregnant" on a digi. So the "digi" becomes the big-big gun after we've had 2 or 3 days of BFPs on the big guns.
• And we always steer clear of blue-dye tests – they seem to be infamous for false positives.

So much to remember, what would we ever do without PeeOnAStick.com!! (Yes, that really is a website, and it is fabulous! It's like the bible of HPT info!)

So, today I POAS as usual and OMG, I did get a faint pink 2nd line on my IC!! Now, I need to classify it as "super faint" but when you’ve seen hundreds of stark white BFNs, even a super faint line jumps out like a freight train coming at you. A second IC done a couple hours later has a super faint line too. Oooh, feeling a little hopeful now! Guess I’ll be heading to CVS later to get the big guns and see if it really could be a BFP. To be continued…